Page 206 of Settle Down, Princess

“What about Giselle?” Silas asked, and both of us sighed. “And my father? His fingers are all over this. You know he thinks a debt is owed.”

“But who will be the one to pay it, brother?” Selene appeared beside him, and the two of them shared a moment. “I don’t know about you, but right now I intend to find the woman I am going to make my wife and fuck her until I can’t feel or see any of the horrors that happened today.” She nodded at Silas. “I suggest you do the same because tomorrow…”

The board was being cleared. All of the monsters of Khean would face justice, but only Silas could stand in judgement of his father. He nodded slowly, right before Roan clapped him on the shoulder.

“Let’s get down to the kitchens, because Creed’s just as likely to start rutting Jess on the benches, and I don’t need my sister seeing that sort of thing.”

“We celebrate today…” I glanced back at the throne room, the sullen green glow of the Emerald Throne looking like it taunted me. “Because the gods know if we’ll have the chance tomorrow.”

Chapter 114

Silas

If I could’ve raised Magnus from the dead and killed him another time, I would have, when I saw the state of Jessalyn’s wrists. She was sitting perched on the kitchen bench, the staff all milling about wide eyed as Creed went to work. He pawed through the herb box, the poisons my father had left there cast into the fire, even as the head cook made a small sound of distress. That died in his throat when Creed whirled to face him. Instead, pans and kettles were filled with water and set on the fire to boil, teas steeped from medicinal herbs brought down from the infirmary, and while Creed bustled around, I moved closer.

“That bastard…” I barely whispered the words as I stroked my fingers up her arm. She winced and went to pull away before I got to the bruises, but I would never touch her wounds. I knew how to inflict pain, not heal. “He never should’ve gotten within ten feet of you. What happened? We left you in the camp.”

I wanted answers and I didn’t, something Jessalyn noted with a long look.

“Your father…” She said that as gently as possible, but I was the one flinching now. “He drugged Creed and the other wolf shifters with these darts.”

“I know which ones you mean.”

It could’ve been worse. It was no consolation, but Father could’ve chosen to kill all of them for the sin of being in the way of what he wanted. As a child I had stood back and watched him end people’s life with no more thought than others paid to what they were having for breakfast. It’d made me shiver back then, but now I felt hot, far too hot. Blood pulsed through my veins, my hands cramping as I kept my touch deliberately light, then was forced to pull them away, lest I leave marks of my own.

We had left Jessalyn somewhere safe, we thought, to fight our collective enemy, but all of our focus on Magnus ignored one thing. Behind all of this was yet another power, one only I could bring down. I raised her hand gently then brushed my lips across her knuckles. The flush in her cheeks was everything, making it difficult to pull away, but I must. The need to touch her, kiss her, tug down the neckline of her dress and map every curve or hollow of her body with my lips was burning hot inside me, but I couldn’t. Roan wanted to whisk Jess away to a bed and celebrate a victory the only way he knew how, but as I met Arik’s eyes across the table, I knew we were of the same mind.

“Your father must die,” he told me as we pulled away, allowing Creed to go to work. We watched the way he applied the poultice then bound bandages around her wrists with interest.

“I know.”

“But not today.” He held my gaze, waiting to see evidence that I understood. “Only one death of a mortal enemy a day, that’s our new rule.”

“Then I’ll rise at dawn,” I replied.

“And I’ll rise with you.”

There was a comfort to be gained from his offer, but it wasn’t one I could accept. I shook my head slowly, listening to the nonsense words Creed spoke as he tended to our girl. Soft things, sweet things, telling her how good and perfect and brave she was. She beamed in response, even if the shadows in her eyes made clear she didn’t quite believe them.

“Blood in, blood out,” I said, tapping my chest. “The deaths that happen within The Guild are always witnessed by its members. It creates a neat web of culpability, each one of us guilty of at least neglecting to report the crimes that go on within our walls.” I met his gaze head on. “A king cannot allow himself to get caught up in that.”

“I’m your brother before I’m the king,” he replied.

“In this matter, I need to keep things to blood family only.”

“There you go!” Roan put a hand around Jess’ shoulders and helped her down from the table. “Now, did you want to scull a tankard of ale like any other soldier or—”

“Bed.” I said that without thinking, Roan’s eyes twinkling as he considered what that might mean. “To sleep. We’re all dead on our feet, though I’m thankful that’s not literally true and tomorrow will be… heinous. Rest now if we can’t sleep.”

For once, everyone agreed with me.

Bringing Jessalyn back to the room we shared in the guards’ quarters was strange, not only because the rooms were now all completely empty. Any of the guards that had stood against us were dead and those that lived had slipped from the palace like rats might a sinking ship. Roan saw the mess in the room, kicking dirty clothes under beds we pressed together, creating one massive space. Creed laid Jessalyn down in the middle of it after loosening her corset and the laces of her dress, and we joined her once boots were kicked off, shirts and weapons dispensed with. Though the minute I lay down beside her, the strangeness faded away.

Jessalyn’s eyes were heavily lidded as she was pressed up against Creed’s chest. The other two shot me dark looks as I claimed the space on the other side of her, but… This might be the only time I got to do this, so I had to take my pleasures where I found them. I gently pulled her closer, cradling her bruised face in my arm as I placed a kiss on the top of her head, treasuring the way her hands spread across my chest.

“So we’re safe now?”

“We will be,” I promised her, as my eyes fell closed. My body didn’t care about this, what had happened and what would come, as exhaustion hit me like a tonne of bricks. “We will be, my mate, because I’ll do everything in my power to make it so.”

---